Chief Red Hawk raids a mining camp

Chief Red Hawk and 7 warriors (4 with bows) made a nighttime attack ona mining camp on Two-Claim Creek.
I dealt some cards at random to represent miners (black cards for miners, red for dummies; the Sheriff was a King, the Ace a mountain man with great experience). I use Two Hour Wargames rules, in this case "Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures".

The miners were aware of their approach; well, at least some were. The first ones to detect the indians happened to be the Sheriff and his deputy, sitting around a fire. (Rep 5, 3).
The Indians won the initiative, and the results: Sheriff OOF (Out of Fight) and the deputy OD (Obviously Dead).
Two bowmen move left; the Chief, a warrior and a brave move to the downed Sheriff; two bowmen and a brave more  to the bushes on the right.
Red Hawk wins the initiative again, but a miner (Rep 4) drops two indians quickly. The Rep3 brave stands his ground. He doesn't have a bow, and decides not to attack. Yet.
The Rep5 Mountain man strides across the little creek, shoots, misses the Chief. He rushes into melee with a brave and a warrior, but is pushed back and back and back until he looses badly and goes OOF.
Chief Red Hawk and two pals rush one of the miners, who routs away. A second miner, in the bushes, runs away too.
With the loss of the Sheriff, the deputy, the mountain man, and a miner or two running away, the remaining miners flee also.
Red Hawk, a warrior, and two braves survive, and two of his OOFs recover. They dispatch the downed miners, rob the camp and make off.
Epilog: When the (new) Sheriff arrives, it is clear that the indians have taken gold as well as supplies and weapons. This is unusual, and Governor Banks is notified...

As it is now

Yerba Buena is a small town on the Peninsula. The major sea port is New London, in the east Bay, near the north end. The great Bay is protected by Fort Seymour, an island bristling with cannon and facing both the Pacific and the interior of the Bay.
Gold has been discovered in New Helvetia at Sutter's Mill, but there will be no stampede of Americans to the Mother Lode. The British have established bases near the mountain passes and strictly control entrance to New Albion.
The sudden increase in wealth has made Britain (and her allies) a considerable force in the new world and has allowed her to build a mighty navy in the Pacific.

Welcome

Welcome!

This is an alternate history site, created to hold progress and battle reports as I work on the Crown Colony of California, also known as Nova Albion. 

Alternate histories begin with a tipping point, a small event that might have gone a different direction. I have selected 1846, off the coast of Mazatlan. Commodore Sloat of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron is tasked with the taking of Alta California for the United States. His competition in this is the British fleet of Admiral Seymour. In the real timeline, Sloat tricks Seymour into sailing West while he makes his way to Monterey.

In my version, Seymour isn't fooled. Seymour arrives in Monterey days ahead of Sloat; hearing of the Bear Flag Revolt, Seymour raises the British flag over Monterey, leaves a garrison, and sails on to Yerba Buena and claims the harbor and all the lands of Alta California for the Crown.

When John Fremont arrives with his Delaware indians and his mountain men, he is arrested and flung into jail.

Yerba Buena never becomes San Francisco, the Republic of California yields to Britain, and at the end of the Mexican American War, Mexico is backed by Britain and surrenders only Texas and Arizona.

The boundary of the United States becomes the 49th parallel west to the Continental Divide, then south to Mexico.